Medicare Supplement

Thinking of Switching Medigap in Cherry Hill? Read This First

# Thinking of Switching Medigap in Cherry Hill? Read This…

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — If you have a Medigap policy and you're wondering whether you can move to a different one, the short answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes with strings attached. Unlike Medicare Advantage and Part D, Medigap doesn't have a national once-a-year window to freely switch. Instead, your ability to change plans — and whether an insurance company can ask health questions — depends on federal rules, and in some states, extra rules on top.

Here's how that plays out for Cherry Hill residents, who fall under New Jersey's insurance rules and Camden County's Medicare landscape.

Your best shot: the six-month Medigap open enrollment window

The strongest protection you get with Medigap is the one-time, six-month open enrollment period that starts the month you turn 65 and are enrolled in Part B. During that window, any insurer selling Medigap in New Jersey has to sell you a policy at the same price they'd charge a healthy person your age. They can't turn you down or charge more because of your health.

Once that window closes, the rules change. If you want to switch to a different Medigap plan later, the insurer can look at your medical history and decide whether to accept you, and at what price. That's called medical underwriting.

What "guaranteed-issue" means under federal law

Federal law carves out a handful of situations where insurers must sell you a Medigap policy without underwriting, even after your initial window ends. These are known as guaranteed-issue rights, and they generally apply when you lose coverage through no fault of your own. Examples include:

• Your Medicare Advantage plan leaves your area or stops serving Medicare.
• You move out of your plan's service area.
• Your employer or union coverage that supplemented Medicare ends.
• You joined Medicare Advantage when you first became eligible for Medicare and want to switch back to Original Medicare within the first 12 months (the "trial right").
• Your Medigap insurance company goes bankrupt or misled you.

In these cases, timing matters — most guaranteed-issue rights last only 63 days from when your other coverage ends. Medicare.gov has the full list, and it's worth reading before you drop any coverage.

The state-level twist: birthday, anniversary, and continuous open enrollment

Some states go further than federal law and give people extra chances to switch Medigap without medical underwriting. You may have heard of:

• Birthday rules, which give you a window around your birthday each year to switch to an equal or lesser plan.
• Anniversary rules, tied to the anniversary of your policy.
• Continuous or year-round open enrollment, which lets seniors change plans at any time.

These extra protections don't exist in every state, and the details vary a lot. Rather than rely on what a friend in another state tells you, check directly with New Jersey's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) or the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance to confirm what applies to Cherry Hill residents right now.

Before you make the switch

A few things to think through before you cancel a Medigap policy or apply for a new one:

• Don't cancel your current policy until the new one is approved and in force. There's usually a 30-day "free look" period where you can try a new policy while keeping the old one, but you pay both premiums during that time.
• Ask the new insurer whether they'll use underwriting and, if so, what conditions might affect approval or pricing.
• Remember that Medigap only works with Original Medicare. If you're currently on a Medicare Advantage plan, switching to Medigap also means switching back to Original Medicare, and that has its own timing rules.
• Cherry Hill is in Camden County, where residents have a range of Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Part D options available. Comparing what your total picture looks like — not just the Medigap premium — matters.

How this fits with other 2026 Medicare changes

Even if your Medigap coverage stays the same, other parts of Medicare are shifting in 2026. Part D will have a $2,100 out-of-pocket cap on covered drugs, and the maximum Part D deductible is $615. The coverage gap was eliminated in 2025, so Part D now has three phases instead of four. The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread drug costs across the year. And IRMAA surcharges — the extra amount higher earners pay for Part B and Part D — start above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

None of those directly change your Medigap rights, but they're worth factoring in when you look at the whole cost of your coverage.